Wonderwall
by pearlydewdrop
Summary: How different would things be if Mulder and Scully had met as children instead of when she walked into his basement office. How different would things have been if they had grown up together rather than Mulder meeting Scully when she was at her peak as a skeptic and Scully meeting Mulder at his peak as a believer.
1. Age 5:Meeting

**Wonderwall**

" _And I'd give up forever to touch you 'Cause I know that you feel me somehow_

 _You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be_

 _And I don't wanna go home right now" -Goo Goo Dolls- Iris_

 **September 1st 1969**

"Come on, Ahab or we're going to be late", five year old Dana Scully cried as she slipped off of her father's lap and landed feet first on to the kitchen floor.

She was finally starting Elementary School today and was so excited to be able to go to school like Missy and Bill even if her school day wouldn't be as long as theirs just yet.

Her mother smiled half proudly and half amused across the table from her, shaking her head at her youngest daughters enthusiasm to get to school on time. 'Long may it last', Margaret Scully thought to herself, rubbing a hand across her very pregnant stomach where she was carrying her fourth child.

"Dana Sweetheart, we have to wake up your brother and sister first and get them ready too", she said, heading over to the kitchen area to get some breakfast together for the two other hungry children who would be up in a matter of minutes.

The little girl continued to tug at her fathers shirt but not before throwing her mother the puppy eyes, pleading for her to understand why it was crucial she be on time.

"Daddy we have to go", she said, hurrying over to the corner to where she had hung up the ladybird patterned schoolbag (containing only her lunch, crayons and the book her father read her a chapter of every night before bed: Moby Dick) that her mother had bought for her the day before.

Dana had woken at the crack of dawn almost as early as her father (who's body-clock had not adjusted since his days in the navy), adamant that she was going to get ready for school all by herself with no help from anyone. She had been looking forward to this day all summer long, having picked up on as much as she possibly could from Melissa and Bill and insisting that her mother teach her how to read and write the alphabet.

William Scully chuckled affectionately, ruffling his youngest daughter's scarlet hair. "Patience, Starbuck. Not a sinner will be there at this hour".

"But Ahab", Dana whined. "You always say a good sailor starts early and is up with the sun".

"That's exactly right,Starbuck", he answered proudly.

Margaret Scully smiled lovingly between her husband and daughter as she approached the table again. "And that's also why you're a little girl and not a sailor".

The five year old pouted, sulkily and returned to the top of the table where she had left her Doctor's playset with the plastic stethoscope and thermometer the night before where she had promptly roped her older brother Bill into being her patient.

"Alright, fine", she mumbled, ready to wait for her siblings who would take forever to be ready.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Fox Mulder peered out his bedroom window, still clad in his favourite flying saucer patterned pyjamas.

He adjusted the telescope that he always left next to his window so it pointed up to the sky above where he loved to look up in hope of not only seeing the stars but in hope of catching sight of a real UFO. He loved learning all about aliens and the stars. Many of his favourite comic books had aliens and space travellers as their main characters.

The sky seemed clear today, not a space ship in sight. How disappointing!

Fox was quickly pulled from his search for Extra-terrestrials by his wailing little sister in the room next door. 'Sammy is awake', he thought to himself excitedly, pushing the eyepiece on the telescope away from his eye.

As noisy as his baby sister was when she was sick or hungry and woke up crying in the middle of the night, her older brother still loved her dearly and was as protective of a big brother that a five and a half years old could be. Even though he was only five, he never needed much sleep anyway. His mother and father had been a little bit worried at the beginning but where now well used to their son's late nights and early mornings.

Fox quickly moved the telescope away from the window before hurrying out of his own room into Samantha's nursery next door.

"You awake, Sammy?", he asked, his little head popping inside the door of the nursery and stepping out of the hallway into the pink flowery coloured room. "Sammy!", he called out to the infant over her cries.

Samantha looked out at her brother through the bars of her crib, her crying now quietened to a soft whimper.

She was usually a fairly happy baby, noisy but happy, and when she cried she could usually be calmed down with somebody talking to her and keeping her company.

Fox smiled, sitting down on the rose coloured carpet next to the crib. Samantha gurgled quietly, her hazel eyes wide and curious as she looked out at her brother. He tears were drying on her face as she rolled over on her side to look at him properly, smiling when she realised who it was.

"I'm starting school today, Sammy", Fox told his year old sister happily. "I can't wait because it's going to be great".

"You're not old enough to go yet but you will be in a few years when you are five like I am now and then I'll be nine and I won't let anyone be mean to you ever, I promise", he told the oblivious infant confidently, his eyes shining.

Just then the door of the nursery opened and Teena Mulder walked through, smiling briefly at the sight of her two children.

"Go and get changed for school, Fox?", she told her son firmly as she scooped Samantha out of the crib, settling the baby on her hip.

Fox pouted, folding his arms stubbornly. "What's wrong with my alien pyjamas, Mom", he asked, standing up.

Teena shook her head. "You can't wear pyjamas on your first day of school, Fox. I left some clothes out on your bed for you to wear".

The little boy sighed, knowing that there wasn't much point in arguing with his mother on the matter.

"Okay, I'll get dressed", he said, pulling the door of the nursery behind him as he turned to head back to his own bedroom to get his stuff ready for the day.

"Hey Mom", he said turning around again, another thought popping into his head. "Can I wear a tie? Dad showed me how to tie one all by myself like a real grown up". Fox wasn't entirely sure what his father did for a living, only that he wore a suit and tie and had lots of co-workers who were tall and old and smoked. Fox didn't like them much but that didn't mean that he didn't want to be like his father.

Teena smiled affectionately, tickling her son's cheek as she passed him on her way back out through the door to get a bottle for Samantha. "If you think you can manage it, Fox".

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

A lot of the kids that Dana had passed on her way into her new classroom had seemed very upset to be starting school for the first time. Some of them were even holding tightly on to their parents so that they wouldn't have to go into school alone.

The youngest Scully daughter had hugged her father (who had dropped her and her siblings off at the school) tightly and followed Bill and Melissa into the large brick coloured building.

She shuffled into the classroom, the nerves finally beginning to settle in and nibble at the pit of her stomach.

Dana pulled herself together like her father always told her to, flattened the pleats on her skirt like her mother always told her to do and headed straight into the colourful looking classroom, coming face to face with her new teacher and the handful of her classmates who were as brave about their first day of school as she was.

A tall blonde haired lady with horn rimmed glasses walked over to greet her from where she was talking to a small group of boys at the other side of the room. Immediately Dana realised that the woman must be the kindergarten teacher.

"Hello Dana", her new teacher said kindly to her, her eyes bright and friendly. "Your older sister Melissa told me all about you last year. My name is Ms Nolan and I'm going to be your teacher for the year".

Dana nodded in greeting, sticking out her hand as her parents had always told her. "It's very nice to meet you, Ms Nolan", she replied confidently, beginning to feel a little more calm and at home. Everything was going to be perfectly fine.

Ms Nolan nodded, glad to see that at least one more of her new students wouldn't be as shy as the rest on their first day. "It's lovely to meet you too, Dana. Why don't you go over their and sit with some of the boys that will be in your class".

Dana smiled and did what she was told, heading over to sit with the boys her teachers had indicated towards.

The five boys sitting around the circular table look up at her briefly before four of them shuffled a little further away from her down the bench, fully engrossed in whatever game that they had chosen from the shelf at the back of the room. The four of them totally ignored her.

Dana rolled her eyes, sitting down. She didn't really care if the boys were going to be rude but she always hated when boys said that they couldn't play with girls because they had "cooties". It had really annoyed her ever since Bill had brought some of his friends over to play during the summer and his friends had totally ignored her and Missy.

There was only one of them who seemed friendly. The fifth boy shook his head slightly at the other four, not seeming to mind the fact that Dana was a girl and grinned up at her toothily.

Even though Dana had not met too many boys the same age as herself she could tell that he was taller than most people their age. His brown hair was a little messy and his hazel coloured eyes were wide, curious and friendly.

The little brown haired boy promptly stuck out his hand to Dana like his mother always told him was how a gentleman behaved when meeting someone new.

"My name is Fox Mulder", he said brightly.

Dana looked at him unconvinced, her bright blue eyes widened comically. "Your name is Fox?", she asked, a little shocked because she had never heard of anyone called after a fluffy red animal before.

Fox giggled slightly, shuffling over only a little to make room for his new friend beside him. "That's right. What's your name?", he asked with a smile. He liked her already with her big blue eyes and bright red hair.

Dana regarded him, unsure for a second whether giggling at his funny name would be mean or not. "My name is Dana Katherine Scully", she replied with an amused smile, sitting down next to him.

Fox smiled goofily. "Nice to meet you, Scully", he said, voice popping when he called her by her surname. The second it left his lips he knew it fitted her even more than 'Dana' did.

Dana looked sideways at him. She had never been called by her surname before but despite this she returned the sentiment immediately. She kind of liked being called 'Scully'. It was exactly the same name that her father's navy friends called him when they came over to visit with their own families some evenings.

"You too, Mulder", Dana said, almost glad to call him that because she wasn't sure if she could keep a straight face while calling him 'Fox'. Foxes were animals not boys!

"So", Fox said now that she was seated next to him and was already a friend. "Do you believe in aliens?", he asked brightly even though his father and mother told him not to bring up such things among his school peers. Scully wouldn't think he was weird like the four other boys he had met so far, right?

Dana looked at him seriously for a second and snorted softly when she realised that he wasn't kidding. "No of course not. My daddy always says that they aren't real and that's what I think too".

"Of course they are real. Aliens are as real as you and me are", Fox argued. There was no way that he was backing down on this one even if his new best friend didn't share his opinion. "Would you like if some alien somewhere in the universe said that you weren't really? ".

Dana shook her head unconvinced and lightly tapped her foot under the table. She totally ignored his second question(it was just too silly) and decided to focus on the argument on a whole.

"Well have you ever seen one?", she asked him, her sceptical expression making her look far more than her five years.

Fox nodded enthusiastically, his whole body bobbing in agreement. "Sure I have. I saw a real live UFO in the sky outside my house the other day", he said recalling the tiny spacecraft with a green light he had seen in the sky through his telescope.

"Don't be silly, Mulder. That was a fancy plane!", Dana explained impatiently, ignoring the stares that that they were beginning to get from the other five year olds who had at this point shuffled to the other side of the table.

"Was not", he argued, his big hazel eyes wide in determination. Of course aliens were real! Of course what he had seen was a UFO! What else could it have been? Not a plane, surely?

"Was too", Dana said finally as she proceeded to open her ladybird school bag and take out the plastic stethoscope that she had somehow managed to smuggle out of the house despite her mother's wishes and her brother's watchful eye. "Now are you going to be my patient or not?".

Mulder sighed, discontentedly but nonetheless went along with her examination.

"Was too", he muttered one final time under his breath as Dana pretended to take his temperature, shaking her head at her new friend's silliness.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"This is Fox Mulder", Scully announced to her mother later in the day when the afternoon had come and school was over. As soon as she had spotted her mother in the yard she had grabbed Mulder's hand and dragged him outside to introunce him to her mother.

Mulder to his credit, followed her unquestioningly and smiled politely as Margaret Scully regarded the two five year olds in front of her. The first thing that Maggie immediately noticed was their wide and matching cheesy grins, the seconds was Fox Mulder's black and slightly swollen eye and Dana's bruised fingers.

"What happened the two of you?", she asked, looking between them, concerned. Their injuries didn't look too serious but surely Dana hadn't gotten into a fight with someone. Maggie Scully knew her youngest daughter was stubborn and had a bit of a temper but hit someone, surely not?

Scully blushed, looking down at the tarmac beneath their feet, suddenly very interested on the silver buckles in her shoes. Mulder looked over her shoulder on to the street to avoid eye contact, the tips of his ears turning scarlet.

He took it upon himself to speak up because he knew that Scully wouldn't say anything even if her silence caused her more trouble.

"It wasn't Scully's fault, Mrs Scully", he said, kicking at a stone beneath his foot. "Tom Colton called me Spooky", he said referring to one of the more pompous blonde haired boys in their class. "And Dana punched him to back me up".

Scully smiled over at him gratefully, looking up at her mother to tell her the next part of the story even though it was a little embarrassing. "Then Tom called me Mrs Spooky so Mulder punched him for being mean to me but Tom punched him back and then Ms Nolan came over and sorted it all out and gave us ice packs to take down the swelling".

Mrs Scully shook her head looking between the two children not sure whether to be angry at her daughter's behaviour or amused at the loyalty between the two five year olds. Already they seemed to be quite the dynamic duo.

"Well how are we going to keep the two of you out of trouble now, huh?", she said with a sigh, well aware that herself and Mrs Mulder would certainly have their work cut out for them.

* * *

 **Hope you guys enjoyed that. This story kind of popped into my head and I really couldn't resist writing it. I want to add a few more chapters to this from here up until maybe their late teens (I'm not sure yet) What do you guys think? should I continue this or focus more on my other stories.**

 **Please leave a review!**


	2. Age 12: Part 1

Chapter 2: Age 12 (Part 1)

And all I can taste is this moment

And all I can breathe is your life

'Cause sooner or later it's over

I just don't want to miss you tonight

~The Goo Goo Dolls

November 7th 1973

3.12pm

"Can I come over to your house later, Mulder", Scully asked, peeking up at her best friend as they turned around the corner, away from their school in the direction of Scully's home.

It was bright out for a November evening and all of the kids from the local middle school were busy rushing home to enjoy the rare sunny winter evening. There was a biting chill in the air and the clouds in the sky were sparse and patchy, like cotton wool stitch into a tablecloth of blue/grey silk.

"Sure", Mulder said, adjusting the straps of his school bag so they sat more comfortably on his constantly stretching shoulders. "But I have to look after Sam later on tonight cos Mom and Dad are having dinner with the Galbrands across the street.

Scully made a face at the mention of Mulder snooty neighbours who never liked kids anywhere near their precious house. "Yeah well, Dad has Naval people over for dinner this evening so if there's anyway I can get out of that, I will".

As much as Scully loved her father, she didn't exactly fancy yet another evening of sitting around the family dinner table being totally silent and "on her best behaviour" while her father and his friends talk old military sea tactics.

It was all very interesting of course when some of the older ones told stories about being at sea during the war but that was only on rare occasions.

"I'll just say that you need a hand baby-sitting Samantha", Scully said thoughtfully. "I'm sure that Mom will be fine with it".

Mulder chuckled, swinging his arm around her shoulders, best buddy style. "Aww. Thanks, Scully, but are you sure that you want to?", he asked. "Sam can be a bit of a demon sometimes, especially when John Wayne films are involved".

Scully laughed slightly, bumping her shoulder against Mulder's (or attempting too, considering the fact that he was already about five inches taller than her).

"That's okay", she said with a smile, "And besides the news on the Water-Gate Scandal is on TV way before the John Wayne movie".

Mulder smirked slightly, shaking his head. "Scully, You're not even twelve yet. How are you interested in all that boring grown up stuff?", he asked aghast. He always knew that his best friend was very grown up for her age, ever since he had first met her seven years earlier but surely politics was a step too far.

Scully rolled her eyes. "You're never too young to be interested in what's going on in your country, Mulder", she said firmly.

Mulder tutted quietly for a few seconds in disbelief, continuing to shake his head in disapproval. "Scully, our country is corrupt. Why the hell would we be interested in it".

"Well", Scully said. "We'll be all grown up someday and then it will be our corrupt country". "

Mulder shrugged sullenly. "I guess so", he said. "But I still don't trust those politicians or the government. Have you ever read up about the JFK assignation back in '63", Mulder asked enthusiastically.

He had always been very interested in that particularly conspiracy. According to his mother, Mulder's first ever words were 'JFK' when he was eleven months old.

Since then, Mulder had searched the local library upside-down and downside-up looking for anything he could find.

"Of course I have", Scully said. "And I agree that some aspects of the case are a little sketchy but that doesn't mean that I buy into all of the crazy stories around it".

"Hey, some of them do make a lot of sense", Mulder argued.

Scully shook her head, unconvinced but listened anyway until Mulder's enthusiasm died down due to the lack of her's.

They continued on in silence down the street, almost at the top of Scully's neighbourhood.

Mulder suddenly perked up, an idea striking him. He dropped his school bag on to the pavements, wrapping both of his arm around Scully's small waist.

Scully looked up, slightly startled. "Mulder, what are y-", she started to ask but was cut of when Mulder slung her over his shoulder in one swift motion and proceeded to carry her down the street, legs in the air and flailing.

"Mulder", she said with a scowl, swatting him on the back with her fists. "Let me down. I'm too heavy for you. You could pull something".

Despite her protestations, he continued to jog down the street until they reached their destination.

"Are you going to let me down now", Scully asked dryly as he stopped outside her house.

Mulder chuckled, panting slightly as he set her back down again on the pavement. "Don't worry. You're as light as a feather, Scully", he remarked with a smile.

Scully shook her head, stamping her foot lightly against the concrete ground. "Am not", she said with a glare.

"You're probably even lighter than Samantha", Mulder argued teasingly but affectionately. He was definitely getting the reaction he was hoping for.

He always teased her about the fact that she was the same height as his eight year old sister, who like Mulder was abnormally tall for her age.

However, if anyone else in school started teasing her about being small or too grown up for her age; Mulder would promptly clobber them, much like how Scully always came to Mulder's defence when the other kids called him "Spooky Mulder", something that was becoming a more regular occurrence by the day.

Scully rolled her eyes, playfully punching him in the shoulder. "I might be small, Mulder but I could still flatten you", she said fiercely.

Mulder smiled goofily, pulling her into a hug, squeezing her shoulders gently.

"Damn right you could, but I know you wouldn't", he replied cheekily against her hair.

Scully smiled despite herself against his shoulder. (So what if she liked hugging him. It was perfectly okay to like hugging your best friend, right?).

She quickly glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Missy or Charlie weren't watching at the front window. (She would never ever hear the end of it if either of them caught her hugging Mulder. They already teased her a lot about him already. Scully always told herself that they just didn't understand that Male/Female friendships were totally normal).

"You're very sure of yourself, aren't you?", she said sarcastically, straightening her red leather school bag on her back as she pulled away from him.

Mulder smirked, releasing his grip on her as he began to head back up the street to where he had left his school stuff. "I'll see you later, partner".

Scully waited until he was nearly at the top of the street when she called out to his retreating frame.

"I still might flatten you! Best friend or not!", she shouted, waving and laughing.

Even though he was now fairly far away, Scully swore he was laughing too as he waved back from the far end of the street.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, Mom", Mulder called when he entered in through the back door, dropping his school bag on the floor next to the kitchen table. "Is it okay if Dana comes over while you and Dad are over at the Galbrands house?".

Teena Mulder looked up absent-mindedly from meatloaf mixture that she was putting together for her two children while her and Bill Mulder were out. "Of course that's okay so long as her parents are fine with it".

Over the last couple of years, Teena had come to like the little redheaded girl with wisdom far beyond her years. "At least I can trust her to keep you out of trouble, right Fox?", she asked her son teasingly.

Mulder rolled his eyes, sitting down at the table. He usually argued that he kept Scully out of trouble just as much as she kept him out of trouble (which high was true on some level) but that would be futile.

Mulder knew that his mother saw Scully as the sensible one and she was probably right (not that Mulder would ever admit that to Scully herself).

"Did I just hear that your girlfriend was coming over later, Fox?", Samantha asked teasingly in a sing-song voice as she entered the kitchen, her pink dress floating behind her and making her look somewhat like a mischievous pixie.

Mulder glared angrily at Samantha, rolling his eyes. "Scully is not my girlfriend", he said firmly, his ears tuning pink despite his best efforts.

Samantha grinned widely, sitting down opposite him at the table. "Then why have you gone all read then, Fox?", she asked in the same sing-song voice as before. "You luurve her", she teased, now waving both of her hands mockingly at her brother.

Mulder scowled, batting Samantha's outstretched fingers away from his face. "I do not".

"You do too".

"I do not".

"You do Fox, admit it".

"No way".

Samantha smiled wickedly and began giggling at older brother's now very flushed face. "Fine then, I'll tell her", she said, sticking out her tongue.

Mulder mirrored her actions, sticking out his own tongue. "You will not, Sam", he said firmly.

"Will too".

"Will not".

"Will too", Samantha replied stubbornly, watching her brother with eyes alight with mischief.

Mulder scowled opening up his school bag to make a start on his homework. He knew Samantha wasn't really going to tell Scully anything so he wasn't actually worried.

Admittedly, he might have a very slight crush on his best friend but that didn't mean he was going to say it out loud to his little sister of all people.

"Do you want to play 'Stratego' with me later", Samantha asked a few minutes later when she had decided that her brother had sufficiently calmed down.

Mulder smiled up at his baby sister despite himself. She may annoy the hell out of him sometimes but at the end of the day she was still his 'Little Sammy' and nothing could or would ever change that.

"Sure, Sam. Right after I have my homework done I'll play with you, then when Scully comes over she can play the winner".

Samantha smiled triumphantly, heading over to their mother who had watched the whole scene between her son and daughter with maternal affection and vague amusement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey Dana", Samantha said, meeting her at the door with a smile. "Fox is in the kitchen doing his homework", she told her. "He's taking aaaages".

Scully smiled, following Samantha into the house. "Have your parents already left, Sam?", she asked as she looked around the hallway for any sign of either of Mulder and Samantha's parents.

Samantha shook her head slightly, walking into the kitchen. "No not yet. They're upstairs getting ready".

Scully nodded in understanding as she entered the kitchen behind Samantha, spotting Mulder in the corner of the dining area of the kitchen, sitting at the table.

Mulder looked up, hearing the two girls enter the kitchen.

"Hey Scully", he called over his science homework that he had just finished, tossing his circular shaped reading glasses on the table.

"I heard you weren't finished yet, Mulder?", Scully asked, teasingly.

Mulder looked over her shoulder, making a face at Samantha ,who giggled in response, heading over to the kitchen counter to grab some of the food their mom had left.

"I'm finished now", Mulder said to Scully as he tossed his books aside in a messy pile, lying back on the chair with his hands behind his head.

Scully eyed him sceptically. "You sure about that, Mulder?", she asked half serious and half teasingly. It wouldn't be unlike Mulder to skive off just a little on something he found boring if it meant doing something that he was more interested in.

"Yes, I'm sure about that", Mulder replied, rolling his eyes. Why did Scully never believe in his work ethic. He had a photographic memory and didn't need to spend ages breaking his back and wrecking his brains with study.

Samantha shook her head in disgust. "You guys are soo obvious, you know that?", she said accusingly from where she now sat on the countertop.

Scully turned around in her seat, eyeing Mulder's little sister curiously. "Obvious about what?".

Mulder looked over at Samantha, grumpily shaking his head.

Samantha smiled mischievously, throwing her head backwards in laughter. She looked over at her brother, feeling somewhat sorry for him (because he looked a little panicky at this point).

"Oh nothing", Samantha replied absent-mindedly, hopping off of the counter. "Now who wants to play Stratego".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What do you dream about, Scully?", Mulder asked, looking up at the glow in the dark stars on the roof of his bedroom.

"Good dreams or bad dreams?", Scully asked, lying next to him on the pale blue carpet of his bedroom floor.

Samantha was downstairs watching the John Wayne movie after playing several losing games of Stratego with both of them. They had tried to watch the movie with Samantha but had both gotten sick of it with it's long boring storyline that didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Scully had watched the 6 o' clock news report on the Water-Gate Scandal at home before she left and The Magician(the show Mulder wanted to watch)wasn't going to be on for another half an hour.

"Either", Mulder replied thoughtfully.

Scully considered it for a moment. "I sometimes dream of the sea", she said quietly.

Mulder smiled softly. He knew they sea meant a lot to Scully since she visit it every so often with her family, that most of her family's livelihood for generations had come from the sea. "Good or bad?", he asked, mirroring he quiet tone.

"Usually good but sometimes it turns bad when my dad gets lost", she tried to keep her voice even but it cracked a little at the end. She felt tears well up in her eyes but she viciously blinked them back. She had never told anyone about that particular reoccurring nightmare before.

Mulder reached between them, taking her hand and squeezing it. "That won't happen Scully. Your Father will always make it home to you, your mom, your brothers and Missy".

Scully smiled softly. "Thanks Mulder", she said sniffing quietly. "What about you, Mulder? What do you dream about?".

"Well, sometimes I fly in my dreams", he said simply with a half shrug.

"What does it feel like?", Scully asked, trying to imagine.

"Like freedom", Mulder said, rolling over on his front to face her, his hazel eyes wide and excited.

"And the bad ones?", Scully asked gently, not sure if she wanted to hear about that particular one but still curious about Mulder's worst fears (aside from insects and bugs, of course. She knew about that particular fear ever since the day when they were climbing trees in the local park a few years before. Mulder had insisted that his scream had been 'a manly one' despite how Scully had told him otherwise)

"I sometimes wake up thinking I'm all alone. The only person on the whole planet", Mulder said shaking his head, "But then I hear the sound of Dad eating sunflower-seeds in his study and I kind of come to my senses".

Scully squeezes his hand tightly just like he had done earlier. She had almost forgotten that they were still even holding hands. "I won't ever let you be all alone in the world, Mulder", she said quietly, sure that Mulder hadn't even heard her.

Mulder smiled softly, touched by the sentiment. "Thanks, Scully", he said in the same quiet tone.

They stayed still and quiet for a few minutes after that, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Come on, Mulder. We better go downstairs to check on Sam", Scully said, standing up and offering her hand to Mulder, which smiled brightly remembering that The Magician was in tonight.

"Sure, Scully. You know The Magician is on tonight, right?".


	3. Age 12 and Later Age 14

**Chapter 3: Age 12 (Part 2)**

 _And I don't want the world to see me_

 _'Cos I don't think that they'd understand_

 _When everything's made to be broken_

 _I just want you to know who I am_

 _~The Goo Goo Dolls, Iris_

November 7th 1973

"Mom and Dad said that I can watch all of the John Wayne movie."

"And I'll be watching 'The Magician' at nine."

"I hate you".

"Get out of my life".

Scully rolled her eyes, shutting the door behind her as she left the two bickering siblings in the sitting room to grab one of Mulder's text books from the kitchen considering that their class had an algebra test the following day.

Living with two brothers and a sister, Dana Scully was no stranger to heated arguments over things like television, who was most likely to cheat while playing a board game etc.

(in fact Scully was often one to instigate such arguments in her own house especially between herself and her older brother Bill)

But somehow when Scully witnessed Mulder and Samantha arguing over such trivial things it really became clear to her how stupid carrying on like that actually was.

Scully had just entered the kitchen when suddenly the light above her head flickered almost threateningly, the power surged menacingly, leaving her in the darknessh. The sounds of Samantha's screaming filled the air.

"Fox! Fox! HELP ME! Daana, Where are you! FOOOOOOX!".

Scully felt a sinister chill slip between her shoulder blades like a block of ice and down her spine, rattling her to her very core. Something told her that there was something very wrong about to happen.

She felt herself freeze stiff, unable to move her own body. Was it shock? Possibly. Or perhaps something else?

She knew that Samantha could be a little bit of a drama queen from time to time and wouldn't put it past her to throw a tantrum or guilt someone up a little to get her way (as realistically all eight and a half year old girls and boys did now and again) but the younger girl sounded genuinely distressed.

Horrified, Scully dropped the textbook she had been holding to the floor with a clatter, hurrying back to where she had left the two Mulder siblings.

Throwing the door open, Scully entered the room to be met by a blinding light to her left hand side.

It was almost too bright to look at, the rays stinging her retinas as the pinkish white beams were absorbed by her terrified blue eyes.

For a few seconds it was all that she that she could register and comprehend before she could even attempt to adjust to her surroundings and properly see more than a few feet in front of her.

She waited, her body frozen, waiting for whateverit was to go away.

Suddenly, the light became dimmer and dimmer before vanishing into the darkness of the cold November evening.

And then it was gone.

A deathly silence surrounded the room making Scully feel as though the house was in some kind of airtight container, away from all kinds of chatter and suburban hustle and bustle.

Scully glanced wildly around the room for some sort of assurance that what she had seen had been real. She tried desperately to compress the vastness of what she had just witnessed into something logical but couldn't, at least for now.

Samantha was nowhere to be seen but she spotted Mulder in the furthest cover of the room next to what she just about recognised as his father's pistol.

His body looked almost entirely rigid, as though petrified by what he had seen, his eyes looking internally forward towards the window, horrified and transfixed by whatever he had seen.

"Mulder!", Scully screamed, rushing over to his side to kneel next to him on the ground. She shook his shoulders roughly, adamant to pull him from whatever trance that he was in.

Meanwhile, her mind was going into overdrive, the adrenaline and fear pumping in her body until she could think about nothing else. 'Would Mulder be okay?'. 'Where was Samantha?'. 'What were those weird lights outside?'. 'Is it something to do with The Mulders?'. 'What on earth is happening here?'.

"Mulder! Wake up!."

Scully felt herself begin to shake with fear but she continued to pull and push at her larger friend in an attempt to wake him up. She felt tears of confusion well up in her eyes and bubble over, slipping silently and freely down her cheeks. 'What is happening here?', she thought with a mixture of horror and frustration.

"FOX WILLIAM MULDER!", she shouted loudly, deciding to change her approach. "I NEED YOU TO WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!.", she declared. "RIGHT NOW!".

She slapped him square across the face, leaving an angry red mark (the same shape as her hand) across his jaw. Scully hated the idea of being left alone in a situation such as this one by herself so she shook him harder once again, trying to suppress their fear that was threatening to overwhelm her.

"Mulder", Scully said, her voice a little quieter but a lot more desperate than before. She ran her index and ring finger across his neck feeling for a pulse, thankfully finding his heartbeat ticking faintly against her own against her fingers.

"I promised not to leave you alone and you're not going to do that to me either".

In a final desperate attempt to wake Mulder up, Scully pressed her lips hard against his with some kind of desperate hope in mind that she could help him regain consciousness with sheer human will.

It was little awkward considering his unconsciousness and her being charged by her adrenaline rush and only lasted only a few seconds before Scully felt Mulder's body jerk a little against hers, his eyelashes flickering against her face.

Scully felt herself breath a sigh of relief that Mulder was okay. 'A desperate reaction at a desperate moment in time', she reasoned in her head as she watched him gain consiousness.

"Scully", Mulder said breathily, his eyes wide in pure horror, his face pale and sweaty between her palms. "Where's Sam?", he asked, his voice panicky.

He glanced quickly around the room, half hoping that the bright light that had dragged Samantha out of the window only moments before had somehow been a figment of his imagination and his little sister would be sitting there in the armchair complaining about having to watch 'The Magician' while the John Wayne movie was still on the other channel.

He could still hear that fateful voice inside of his head, something wasn't quite human about it and for some reason Mulder didn't find himself in anyway surprised, only empty. His little sister was gone.

 _"Your sister won't be seriously harmed", they had said."and will someday be returned"._

That was all good and fine but only thing was, that just wasn't enough for him.

"Mulder what just happened?", Scully asked, observing Mulder intently, his eyes seemed hollow as though there was no one home inside.

She felt a ripple of concern ripple through her as she watched him struggle to could still hear the screams of Sam ringing in her ears as though she had walked into a movie where the VHS cassette was broken and the sound from the previous scene continued on over the new images.

"They promised to bring her back someday", he replied quietly, almost trance-like.

Scully felt herself shiver slightly at his words and his use of the term 'them'. Who were 'they' and what could they possibly want with a little eight year old girl. Her immediate impulse was to reject the reality of what she had seen.

Perhaps 'they' were just ordinary kidnappers and the mysterious lights just the headlights of a car.

Even to the twelve years old Scully this option didn't seem plausible. The lights outside the house had been too bright, too creepy. It gave her a shuddery feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Definitely not ordinary kidnappers.

Something had taken little Sam Mulder and if Scully knew her best friend they way she thought she did she knew nothing would stop Mulder from looking for his little sister once they pair of them had grown up enough to be allowed out of their respective houses past their evening curfew of 8.30.

"Do you believe 'them' Mulder", Scully asked seriously, taking Mulder's lead on not out rightly naming what they had seen. She couldn't imagine how she, herself, could or would believe some elusive voice if she were in his position.

If she had lost Bill or Melissa or Charlie.

"I want to believe."

At twelve years old, Mulder and Scully realised for the first time that they may not be alone in the universe.

Granted, one of them was more willing to believe than the other.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _ **3 Years Later**_

Fifteen year old Dana Scully sat slumped against the front step of her house, a cigarette cradled between thumb and forefinger just as she had seen her mother do for years. She didn't particularly warm to the taste of smoke in her mouth and in her nostrils or the heaviness that she felt in her lungs but she wasn't supposed to smoke. It would drive her parents crazy to think their perfect little girl had been out smoking.

And that was what made all the difference.

It was three years today since the day that Samantha had been taken and Scully still felt sick to her stomach at the mere thought of what had happened to the little girl. She still remembered as plain as the day when Mulder's parent had come home, followed by an onslaught of cops who were all after both her and Mulder's respective sides to the story.

To which Mulder had been submissive about and Scully indignant. She and Mulder had seen the very same thing (him in a little more detail than her). why should they be asked their stories separately when clearly it was the same thing that had happened in front of both of them. That and she didn't want to leave Mulder alone with the emotionless cops and the other men with the dark clothes and the clothes that smelled strongly of tobacco. She didn't want to leave him felling lost and if she was being honest, she felt as though she needed someone who had seen what she had seen with her too. It had gone a long way in convincing her of her own sanity.

Everything had been crazy for the first couple of hours after it had happened. Mulder's mother had spent the first eight hours down at the local precinct while his father had excused himself to go talk to some business associates that had appeared practically out of thin air in jet black Cadillac, smoking wafting from the back seat window.

Mulder had stayed on the sofa at her house that night as soon as Ahab had picked the pair of them up from the precinct. They had ended up spending the night sitting on the couch together, squeezing each other's fingers for some kind of moral support and reassurance that they weren't alone in their experience.

Melissa and Bill had long since gone to bed but Charlie (who awoke at the slightest sound) sat on one of the arm chairs across from them, cross legged with a tear stained face, his Red haired mussed from sleep and his little blue eyes wide in shock.

Sam had been in his class at school.

Margaret and William Scully had watched the three youngsters intently after suggesting that the say a decade of the rosary, praying to God that Sam would be found. They could had seen clearly then that Charlie and the two preteens had lost a little of their innocence that night.

Scully could still remember the look in her mother's eyes as the dark haired woman sat down next to her and Mulder, joining her hands in prayer. She could still remember how her father had kissed the top of her head, hugged a sleepy Charlie and ruffled Mulder's untidy hair.

That had all been three years ago and it was still hard for Scully to believe everything that had happened to her and Mulder that night hadn't all just been an elaborate dream and that Sam wasn't just there in her bedroom reading some kid-friendly western novel and listening to 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles on Mrs Mulder's old vinyl.

She took another long drag from the cigarette and let the smoke waft out of her mouth and nose. The feeling was almost empowering. It made her feel a lot older than she actually was.

"Your do know that those things will kill you, right?

Scully felt herself jump at the interruption but relaxed immediately when she realised who was behind her. "You do know that I would have punched someone for sneaking up on me like that if I hadn't recognised your snarky tone of voice", Scully bit back, scooching over from her perch to let him sit down next to her, offering him the cigarette.

Mulder smirked affectionately, eyebrows raised as he took the cigarette and sat down next to her. "Well, I guess if it's going to kill you it may as well make a clean job of it and kill me too", Mulder said half teasingly and half sullenly, the tiredness obvious in the thickness of his voice.

He too took a drag from the cigarette as he had seen her do earlier, halfheartedly blowing a smoke ring.

Scully observed him, concerned. She had become quite a pro over the last three years at recognising when Mulder hadn't slept. His childhood distaste for going to bed had grown into insomnia over the last two years, somewhere between the day Sam was taken and his huge growth spurt which left him nearly six foot and over a foot taller than Scully.

"When was the last time you slept, Mulder?", Scully asked quietly, brushing his soft brown hair back off of his forehead, her own troubles (that always reared their ugly head coming near the anniversary of Samantha's disappearance) that had brought her out on to her front porch forgotten for now.

Mulder smiled sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders. "Two days maybe three."

It was true and Mulder sighed deeply at his own immediate honesty. He hardly ever lied to Scully anyway. Most of the time he felt as though she was the only person he had left in the world since his sister disappeared, changing his life forever.

"Mulder", Scully declared aghast, "That's soo bad for you."

"And so is smoking your mother's cigarettes", Mulder replied, tossing the cigarette across the lawn and on to the drive way where it hissed slightly, landing in a puddle.

"Touché", she agreed reluctantly with a sigh. "Will you at least tell me what's bothering you."

"My parents are breaking up", he said simply. "And the usual of coarse", he said referencing what had happened now three years ago today.

"Oh", Scully said shortly, not really sure how she should respond. Both she and Mulder had seen this coming for quite a while but hearing their shared suspicions must surely be a bit of shock for him. "I'm so sorry, Mulder", she started but was he shrugged her off.

Fox Mulder may indulge in self pity now and again but never liked getting it from other people. Even Scully who was closer to him then most.

"It's okay Scully. It's not like I didn't see it coming", he said reassuringly. "What brings you out here so late at night? I thought insomnia was my thing", Mulder asked, elbowing her lightly in the ribs.

Scully sighed deeply. Of course Mulder knew that today was the anniversary of Samantha's disappearance. She knew for a fact that it haunted him everyday even though she had done her very best to be there for him through it all as he had been there for her.

"The usual", she answered simply, mirroring the vagueness that both of them could see through like a freshly washed window.

Mulder sighed sadly, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders as much for his amenity as hers. "Do you think we'll find her someday? I want to believe that she's still out there somewhere. i want to believe that she'll get the same chance as we will to grow up."

"Of course, Mulder", Scully replied quietly. "I believe that one day you will find Samantha and I will be right there with you when you do."

A reflective silence fell between the two teenagers, the quiet hum of the early winter wind in the air. Scully's neighborhood almost entirely silent save for the whine of electricity in the power lines above them.

Mulder watched Scully carefully for a moment, touched by her words. It always struck him ever since the fateful night Sam disappeared just how much Scully stuck by him. When everyone doubt his claims of his sister's abduction by aliens, Scully stood by him 100% and he appreciated that more than words could describe.

Scully yelped slightly in surprise as Mulder pulled her into a bone crushing hug, wrapping his two larger arms around her tiny waist but quickly relaxed.

"Thank you, Scully", Mulder said quietly, his voice surprisingly even for a person who had seen his sister vanish and had just found out their parents were getting a divorce.

"For what?", she asked, face pressed against the warm fabric of his thick fleece.

"You're the only person in my life who I haven't lost or who hasn't left or wanted to leave", he said simply, stroking her chin with the tips of his fingers.

Scully smiled shyly, ducking under the intensity of his gaze, bidding her cheeks to remain their usual pale colour. "I told you three years ago that I'll never leave you alone and I keep my promises".

Mulder smiled, equally as embarrassed. Looking anywhere but at her when the next sentence tumbled from his mouth. "You kissed me the night Sam went missing, Scully", he said, mentioning it for the first time in three years.

Scully looked up at him in shock, surprised that he remembered anything at all about that night aside from the image that would be burned into both of them forever; Sam disappearing with the blinding white and pink lights.

"You remembered?", Scully asked quietly.

He smirked goofily. "How could I forget something like that".

* * *

 **Hello Guys :) Happy Valentines Day! Please leave a review**


	4. Aged 17

Wonderwall Chapter 3

...

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming,

All the moment, the truth in your lies.

When everything feels like a movie

Yeah, you breathe just to know you're alive

~The Goo Goo Dolls

...

March 1978 (aged 17)

The basketball bounced hazardously back towards the pair of teens, clanging as it made contact with the metal hoop. Mulder chuckled, scooping it lazily out of the air as he watched the silent frustration of his tiny best friend at the lack of her own basketball abilities .

"How is it that we're best friends?", he teased gently, tossing the ball into the hoop with ease before passing it back to the red head beside him. "Almost thirteen years together Scully and nothing about basketball has rubbed off on you?"

Scully rolled her eyes, making another failed attempt at getting a basket and watched as the ball bounced off once more at an angle nearly as awkward as last time. Somehow though, she caught it and chest passed it back to a very self satisfied looking Mulder. "We're friends because no one else puts up with you?", she deadpanned even though her comment was meant lightheadedly.

It still didn't mean that there wasn't some truth to it though.

She was seventeen years old and could count all of her friends on less than one hand, starkly opposite to her siblings but that wasn't the point; Mulder was the only friend that she really needed, the only one who mattered. Post Samantha's disappearance, the childish slack that Mulder had been privy to when they were little seemed to have turned up a few notches and everyone in school had their own opinion on what happened on that fateful night.

She had been the only one to stick by Mulder 110% at all times despite her mixed feelings on the possibility of intelligent alien life travelling to earth, and even though she wouldn't have changed a thing and would do it all again in a heartbeat, she had alienated herself from everyone else their age in the process.

Mulder looked over at her slightly confused, concern etched on his features. He knew her well enough to know that she gets distant and easily pissed off when she's upset. So dropping the basketball immediately, he made his way over to her, grasping her elbows lightly. "Are you okay, Scully?", he asked quietly as though there was some invisible person lurking in his backyard who could eavesdrop on their conversation.

Scully looked up at him firmly. "I'm fine", she answered, looking determinedly into his worried hazel eyes. She knew that he could read her pretty damn well, better than most people could.

She knew it would probably be hard to hide how she was feeling from him but she was, at least, going to try.

Her friendship with him meant the world to her, but inside she felt conflicted. She had tried to keep her feelings for him under wraps. Some part of her felt that telling him would just be unfair, he already was so broken after Samantha's disappearance and his parent's divorce that saw what was left of his family dissolve into nothingness like cereal into warm milk.

She could see it in his eyes that he has been finding it hard to really be happy and enjoy life over the last few years. The heartiness that was one in his laugh is long gone and his eyes are darker and sadder then they have ever been in all the years that she had known him.

Would a confession from her just be added pressure? Would he feel comfortable being around her ever again after she told him? Would he stop telling her his secrets and worries, things he told no one else, just because she had kept one of her biggest secrets, one that she has kept close to her heart for the past god-knows-how-many years from him?

She was almost 99.9% sure that he didn't feel the same way, that he just saw her as a companion and friend, someone who shared things with him that no one else could or would ever understand. There was no way that she would jeopardise that.

There was moments when she wanted to believe that he was beginning to look at her as more than a friend, but that could be just her imagination. She was a rational person and usually tossed those kinds of thoughts aside as soon as they manifested in her head.

There had always been moments where he sought her out in a crowd and grasped her hand tightly in his, it was so they wouldn't get separated. There were always times when he had thrown her a private smile when they both got a joke that nobody else did.

Over the years, hugs and forehead kisses and sneaking into each others bedroom windows for company at unnatural hours had been normalised. Sure those weren't really things that people who were just friends did but they had always been more than your average pair of pals.

She had tried, she had really tried not to fall in love with Mulder. Melissa ended up being told half of the truth by Scully herself and ended up suspecting the other half when she witnessed the interactions between the two seventeen year olds when she came home on winter break from college.

At first, she had encouraged her younger sister to simply come clean but had also suggested that Scully chance going on a date or two with someone else and spend some time with a guy who wasn't Mulder.

Scully choose the latter option, first she would try and distract herself.

That's where Marcus Black had come into the whole mess. Being a new student in school who had transferred for senior year, he lacked the prejudice against Mulder and Scully that everyone else seemed to have cultivated so well over the last five years.

He was an athlete and a star physics, chemistry, biology and maths student. He and Scully had gone to the library and for ice cream together on a good few occasions. He had even taken her on their first date to an open air cinema in the park to see 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and had been a total gentleman for the whole evening.

Marcus Black had seemed perfect in every way despite the fact that he wasn't Mulder.

To add flames to the fire, Mulder hadn't liked Marcus much and had insisted that the guy wasn't good enough for Scully.

Well, he had been right, hadn't he?

Two weeks later, Scully had found Marcus mouthing about how Mulder was her 'charity case' and was actually a raving lunatic to some of the guys from the athletics team. Needless to say she dumped the absolute jerk on the spot with a few choice cures words and a bloody nose for talking crap about her best friend.

Mulder observed her, tilting his head slightly. "Earth calling Dana Katherine Scully. We really miss you down here and am desperately worried about you", he said, in an almost sing-song tone, betraying the concern for her that was glinting in his eyes.

"I'm fine Mulder, really. I'd tell you if I wasn't?"

"Is it something to do with that Marcus guy?"

"No, we broke up."

Mulder looked down at her a little shocked, before a slight flash of anger flared up inside him, he couldn't help but dislike Marcus as much as he tried for Scully's sake. He knew that Scully had no interest in him beyond the point of friendship. But at the end of the day, she was his best, oldest and only friend and he was fiercely protective of her despite knowing that she was more than capable of looking after herself. "He didn't try anything did he? Tell me what he did, Scully?"

Scully shook her head, a humourless puff of laughter bubbling out of her at Mulder's reaction. The real answer to that question was that Marcus simply wasn't Mulder and that was the one true reason why a relationship between them would never work. "No, we just have drastically different opinions on certain things."

"Like what?", he asked cautiously, not sure if he really wanted the answer. Scully and Marcus had only been dating for the past a month or less and he, Mulder, had tried very hard to appear as though the new development in his and Scully's lives didn't hurt like a bullet wound. He knew that he was being selfish but he had really missed her.

His facade of disinterest on the topic of her boyfriend had ensured that Scully didn't bring up Marcus too often but despite his efforts, seeing someone else make Scully happy was kind of like taking a kick to the gut.

He really did want to be happy for her. After all, it was his fault that Scully had so few friends besides him. Mulder only wanted the best for her. Her loyalty towards him and their friendship meant that neither of them had ever turned their back on the other when the shit hit the fan over the years but it also meant that it was just the two of them against the world.

Experience had made the pair of them grow up a hell of a lot quicker than everyone else but Mulder still felt guilty that he had dragged her, and she had gone willingly, into this whole mess with him. She had been there with him the night Sam disappeared. She had seen what he saw or at least some of it. And what they saw, or didn't see, they couldn't deny.

Scully looked up at him uncertain whether she should just fabricate something on the spot or simply tell him the truth. She knew Mulder and she knew that he would feel guilty if she told him that he was the reason that she broke up with Marcus. But honesty is the best policy and she really did hate keeping the truth from Mulder. He had already been through so much with so many other people turning their backs on him. At least she had her family, he had no one but her.

"You", she said simply and quickly as though she were ripping off a bandage. Scully watched him carefully, getting exactly the response that she expected.

Mulder moved his hands from her elbows up to her shoulders, giving them a little squeeze in comfort. He wasn't exactly surprised that Marcus had been talking crap about him, everyone did after all but Scully didn't deserve the slack she got over her association and friendship with him. She had always backed him up to the last, defending him more than a mother bear defends her cubs.

Just as he would defend her.

He knew that he somewhat lived up to the spooky, eccentric reputation that he had earned for himself through his family issues, his claims that his sister had been abducted by aliens and his own snarky remarks when someone brought up any of the above topics but Scully didn't, she actually made an effort with their peers and tried somewhat to be sociable. She has always been the best person he knows, his best friend and only confidant. She had been there for him when Samantha disappeared, when no one else was. She had been there when his mother got angry and depressed and his father turned to drink. She had been there when his parents split up. She had been there from the beginning and had never left.

No one, meant more to him than her. She was his true north.

"You don't deserve that kind of crap, Scully. I'm sorry", he whispered soothingly, pulling her against him for a hug. He wrapped his arms fully around her tiny body, resting his chin on the crown of her head. "You really don't have to beat up everybody who has a go at me, Scully", he whispered, only half jokingly.

He knew Scully packed a mighty punch and wouldn't think twice about teaching anyone who spread rumours about him manners. It was one of the many many things he loved about her. "I'm a big boy, I can take a few blows".

Scully sighed into his warm sweatshirt, inhaling his usual scent of sunflower-seeds, coffee, men's deodorant and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. She felt his arms settling on their usual spot on her lower back. This was one of the many moments for her when she wanted to pull him down to her level, either by the chin or by the collar of his t-shirt and really kiss some sense into him, she wouldn't though. "You shouldn't have to, Mulder", she replied firmly. "You've been through more than everyone else at school but together and doubled..."

"But Scully, that doesn't mean...", Mulder said, cutting across her quietly. It wasn't that other people's comments didn't bother him, they did a little. But he didn't want them bothering Scully. So if he had to sucked it up and take a few more jibes than usual, he would do it in a heartbeat if it meant that Scully didn't get messed around too.

Scully glared up at him for interrupting her. "Mulder don't say you haven't been through a lot because you have. You, of all people, don't deserve to be treated like that. You're one of the strongest and best people I know. They don't understand shit and you know it"

Mulder smiled sadly against her hair, pecking her lightly on the forehead as they swayed a little in their embrace. "You've been through a lot too, Scully. You were with me the whole time. Both of us had to grow up a hell of a lot quicker than everyone else", he said. The fact that they had grown up faster than the rest of their peers hadn't really begun to come to light until the beginning of their senior year. Scully would be leaving home soon and Mulder would be leaving the town where his sister disappeared.

"I don't think that you're crazy. You know that right?", Scully said teasingly, pulling out of his embrace gently, immediately missing the comforting feeling of his body alongside hers.

Mulder smirked affectionately, longing, as he did on many occasions if he was being honest with himself, to swoop down and give her even the smallest peck on the lips (or maybe even a bit more than a peck if he could get away with it, but he seriously doubted he would). "Ditto.", he replied linking his arm playfully through hers.

Scully smiled to herself. This is what she loved most about her relationship with Mulder, they could always talk about some serious and then turn around and be completely silly with one another. Could she really risk a friendship like that even if keeping the truth from him made her feel physically sick sometimes?

"Mulder", Scully said cautiously, playing with his fingers that were still tucked through her arm. "If I asked you about something or told you about something that you may consider a bit...unexpected and possibly a little strange would it change the way we looked at one another?"

Mulder observed her curiously before nodding. "Nothing could or would change my opinion of you, Scully. No matter what it is", he replied confidently before grinning mischievously. "And if it's strange and unexpected I'll probably be down anyway."

"Even if it's something kind of serious that I've been keeping from you for a while."

"Even if that's the case".

Scully sighed, still a little unsure. She could feel her heart thumping in the tips of her fingers. Other had never been this difficult to say something to Mulder in all of the years they have been practically joined at the hip.

Never.

She decided to blurt it out quickly. Scully looked up at him for a moment, attempting to gauge whether he had any idea of the raging internal conflict that was going on inside of her. Could she really back out now? Probably not.

"Mulder, I'm in love with you", she said quickly, trying to look anywhere but directly at him. "And I've tried to hide it from you for a while but I can't do it anymore. It's eating me up inside and I hate keeping it from you."

"You love me?", Mulder asked incredulously. He half expected to wake up right here and now in his bed, a fifteen minutes walk from his Scully. "I thought I was the only one trying to keep that particular little secret."

Scully looked up at him confused, pulling her arm away from his to face him properly. "What's that supposed to mean?".

"Scully", Mulder groaned quietly. "That doesn't exactly make things easy for me".

She smirked. "By now you should know that I'm never going to make things easy for you", she replied with a smile, prompting him to continue.

"It means that I've felt things for you and thought about you in ways that aren't exactly 'best buddy style' for years. My feelings for you are unparalleled to my feelings for anyone else and I'm sure that I'll never feel like this about anyone again", Mulder sighed, unsure whether he had said a bit much. He didn't want to scare her off right after she had dropped this happy bomb shell on him. "In short, I love you too."

"Since when?"

"Let's just say you were never just my best friend and Samantha used to tease me about you pretty damn often before she, well... you know", life was hard enough without bringing up the more difficult parts of his and Scully's shared pasts now. They would find Samantha in their own time...together. Now, all he wanted was to have Scully closer to him, he wanted to kiss her and hold her, but he wouldn't push her. Ever.

Scully nodded quietly, unsure of what to do now. She had just confessed to her best friend that she loved him and found out that he has been in love with her for probably as long if not longer. What happens now? Should she kiss him? Will he kiss her? Did either of them know what they were doing?

Probably not.

They never sat or stood too far apart when they were together, proximity had never been an issue before. But now Mulder seemed impossibly close, his nose mere inches from her's and his warm breath on her face, tickling her almost teasingly.

She wasn't certain who leaned in first but when their lips met it reminded Scully of Chemistry class, when the two right elements were put together, they'd explode. Nobody had ever kissed her like this before, their thirty second kiss when they were twelve didn't count and kissing Marcus had only felt like getting pushed squarely on the mouth and pushing back.

This was so different. So beautifully different.

It was all fumbly and eager at the start and neither of them knew where to put their hands, but that didn't matter. Mulder smiled into her mouth, opening up to gain better access. Scully felt herself being pulled even closer to him as she clung tightly to the forms of his basketball t-shirt like an anchor keeping her in place on stormy waters. She reached up, toying her fingers through his soft brown hair, enjoying the sensation of him being close to her. It was even better than she had even fantasised it would be. She could feel his body pressed against hers through the light material of their clothes. She couldn't help the slight moan that escaped her when his fingers gently pushed up the hem of her sweater, reaching to caress the skin of her lower back.

Mulder chuckled in appreciation but was silenced as she forcefully tugged at his bottom lip, thrusting her tongue into his warm, wet mouth. Now it was his turn to moan in surprise.

He gripped her hips firmly but still comfortable looping his finger through the belt loops on her jeans to ground himself. She was sending him to heaven and back and he didn't even believe in God. He felt as though he might float away but embraced her more firmly and claimed her mouth with the same determined force with which she claimed his.

"You've done this before, right?"

"Made out with someone like this. Yes. No. Yes, but not like this".

"Not with a friend?"

"Not when I really wanted it".

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Six Months Later (Aged 18)

With his long legs dangling out at the end of her bed, Mulder rested his head on Scully's stomach, looking up at the ceiling while she read through college brochures, round rimmed glasses perched at the end of her nose as they prepared to write their college applications.

Scully wanted to do a pre-med in physics in a top college. Mulder just wanted get as far away from his parents as he could while getting himself appropriately qualified to get in a position where he could look for his sister, simple as.

"We could go to Boston", Scully suggested, setting the leaflet back on the bed. "They have some pretty amazing pre-med course as well as two of the best psychology professors in the country... or what about Washington or Maryland or New York."

Mulder smiled, turning over on his front to look up at her, his chin on her stomach. "They'll be tripping over each other to accept you, Scully. You're practically one of those child geniuses that grew up."

Scully rolled her eyes, pushing him off of her gently until he was in a string position next to her on the small single bed mattress. "You're pretty damn smart yourself, Mulder. They'll be thrilled to get their hands on you too", she said before frowning slightly. "If we can decide where we want to go that is?".

Mulder nodded, smiling at her mischievously. He wasn't sure how she would react to the question that was on the tip of his tongue but decided to ask her anyway. "What about Oxford?"

She looked at him slightly shocked, tossing her glasses of and leaving them on the pillow. "Oxford? As in Oxford in England?"

"The very one".

Scully sighed deeply, sitting up straight, dropping her voice a little so if her parents were around they wouldn't hear the conversation from outside the door. "Mulder, Oxford is on the other side of the world and it's crazy expensive on top of that! You might come from a extremely wealthy family but I don't and Mom and Dad still have Charlie to educate", she sighed deeply. "It wouldn't be fair on them, Mulder."

He nodded seriously, "I thought about that, Scully and they have scholarship up for grabs for American students. Money might not have to be a problem. You're literally the smartest person I know times ten."

Scully smiled slightly, reaching over to push the hair that had fallen into his face in his enthusiasm away. "It would be pretty amazing to go to university in a different country, huh?", she said a little excitedly, thinking of all the famous Medical Doctors that had come from Oxford and everything they could do living together in another country. It would be like their very own adventure!

Mulder nodded, grinning widely. "I would be happy anywhere so long as I was with you but yeah, I would be incredible, wouldn't it?"

Scully chuckled, a mixture of excitement, relief and anticipation bubbling out of her. She reached across the few remaining inches between them, stealing a long chaste kiss from his mouth.

Mulder smiled goofily, feeling as though he would never get used to being able to kiss her like this. It felt better than anything he had every done before. Tasted better than anything he could ever have imagined before he kissed her for the first time.

"How am I going to tell my parents?", Scully asked, unexpectedly pulling back from him, biting her lip in uncertainty. "They hadn't expected me to want to go to college abroad and I didn't really consider it myself until now."

"Do you want to go to Oxford, Scully?", Mulder asked, tilting his head slightly in a way that said 'Scully please be honest with me, I can tell when you're lying'. "Because it was just an idea."

"Yeah, I do", Scully said, settling both of her hands against his chest. "I think that would be good for us and it's one of the best colleges in the world, some of the best medical doctors and psychologists were educated there. It's a no brainer really".

Mulder nodded, that's what he had thought too. "Would you be okay living so far away from your family?", Mulder asked, thinking of Captain and Mrs Scully as well as Scully's three siblings. It wouldn't be an issue for him in the slightest but he knew Scully had quite a good relationship with her family.

"I was going to be far away from them anyway, Mulder. This only adds a few extra zeros to the difference", Scully smiled to herself. "Or at least that's what I'll tell Mom and Dad."

"Do you want me to be there when you tell them?", Mulder asked, lacing her fingers with him and shimmying up the mattress to sit next to her. He didn't want her to do that alone if she wanted him there. In all the years that they had been together, he had never had to do anything difficult alone. She had always been with him and he hoped to whatever God would listen that she always would.

He knew things were only going to get harder from here on out. They still had college to finish and Samantha to find. But they would do it...together. Together they could do anything.

Scully nodded, settling her head against his shoulder. This was the way it was supposed to be, the two of them here together, always. No matter where they went or what happened they would have each other and that would be enough. "Yeah, they'll probably be nearly as worried about you leaving the country as they will be about me."

"Well then, we'll just have to tell them that we'll look after each other".

"Don't we always".

"And we always will, come hell, high water or even aliens".

"Especially come aliens".

...

And I don't want the world to see me,

Cos I don't think that they'd understand,

When everything's made to be broken,

I just want you to know who I am.

I just want you to know who I am.

~Iris, The Goo Goo Dolls

..

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 **Thank you so much for your support, reading and reviewing. This is the end of this story but i may return to this universe in the near future. Anybody like to hear about them in college? Yes, No? Anyways, Have a lovely day :)**


	5. Author's Note

Hi guys

How are ye all?

I have the first chapter of this story's sequel up now if you feel like checking it out! I don't think I'm gonna do as many time skips this time around and focus more on the time from the summer post high school to their college graduation.

Please leave me a review and have ano amazing day,

Pearlydewdrop


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